Study on the effect of cyclohexane concentration on mesoporous silica nanoparticles / Zulaikha Azmi

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were successfully synthesis using
microemulsion method with different concentration of cyclohexane (C6H12).
In this method, tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS) act as silica precursor,
Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant and pore generating
agent, and ammonium hydroxide (NH40H) as catalyst. The samples were
analysed using SEM, EDX, XRD, UV-Vis and FTIR. Scanning Electron
Microscope (SEM) image shows that the particle size of sample is smaller
due to the increase the amount of C6H12. Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analyzer
(EDX) confirms the presence of SiO2. X-ray diffraction (XRD) determines
whether the structure of the sample amorphous or crystalline. For sample I ml, 2 ml, 3 ml and 4 ml C6H12 show they in amorphous form while 5 ml C6H12
sample shows it is in crystalline form. The samples in amorphous form might
be due to insufficient heat treatment. The energy band gap for the MSNs were
determined using Tauc plot and shows increasing trend from 3.90 eV to 4.20
eV. The increases of energy gap show the decreases of size of particle. From
FTIR analysis, the functional group including vibrational and bending modes
present were determined. The synthesized mesoporous SiO2 nanoparticles
can be used for several applications such as drug delivery, bio-imaging, and
biomedicine. In order to obtain high quality for MSNs, the reaction parameter
can be improved in further research